Ottawa Foodies

wow wow wow! The best food I've eaten since moving to Ottawa.

We had the Chicken Satay with Peanut sauce to start. I thought the portion a little small for the price (about $10), but good.

For the main course, I ordered the Sambal Sotong (squid), my wife the Beef Rendang, with a platter of traditional rice. Both had lovely flavours.

Both are listed as very hot (3 stars) on their menu, but the Sambal dish was much hotter. I consider myself to have a very good tolerance for spicy food, and this was pushing it. The heat level puts things like vindaloo to shame.

On top of our drinks, it came to about $50.

On our way out I was inquiring about other traditional dishes such as Nasi, and the man (owner?) said they are happy to add heat to any dish. They also have Bahmi Goreng, another favorite of mine. I'll be sure to go back and try both.

Foodlover: if it's hard to pronounce, it's probably Gewürztraminer ;)

We went here last night on a last minute decision, and we were definitely were not disappointed! One member of our group had been there before a few times so he knew exactly what we should order.

So in this picture we have the soya tofu (all our faves), curry vegetables, tamarind shrimp, and an order of traditional rice. As someone else had mentioned here, the soya tofu was amazing! Nice and moist, crispy and flavourful. The veggies (onions, bell peppers, thin slices of tofu) were spicy and have that amazing curry taste, bold and just the right amount of heat. The shrimp was cooked perfectly and swimming in a yummy tamarind broth. The rice went well with everything and even had some pieces of cashews and raisins in it. The only main that isn't in this picture is the Javanese chicken which was breaded and cut into chunky strips, served with a really nice teriyaki sauce.

The service was very attentive, friendly, and unobtrusive. It is a couple, I believe, that run this restaurant and they were the only ones serving the whole place, which by the way, became quite full by the time we left around 9:30! A good sign for sure. I'll comment separately on dessert, appetizers, and coffee below/above but here was the damage (for lack of a better word!):

-2 bottles of wine-Pelee Island (can't remember what kind but it's a German word which I can't pronounce)
-4 springrolls
-4 mains
-1 order traditional rice
-2 desserts
-3 Malaysian coffees
-1 Malaysian tea
came to $146 and some change before tip!! So, so good and completely affordable.

I am a huge fan of spicy food, so I was pleased to learn that my boss was taking my coworkers and I out for dinner to this restaurant. In any case, the dinner was nothing short of superb. I've noticed many people calling it a "hole in the wall", but I found it to be anything but. We ordered spring rolls and shrimp rolls to start, and I absolutely LOVED the shrimp rolls. Very well seasoned, and the dipping sauce was perfect, and not even too spicy. We ordered a few dishes as mains, a light beef curry, the spiciest shrimp on the menu, a less spicy shrimp for the faint-hearted and a pepper lamb dish. Well, wow. As I mentioned, I like spicy food, but nothing was served here that I couldn't handle. Even one of my coworkers, who is not as "experienced" as I was could handle everything, but perhaps in smaller portions. I particularly loved the spicy shrimp - the sauce that covered them was nothing short of the best sauce I've ever had. And I also liked the pepper lamb, it was succulent and perfectly seasoned. I was the only one who could handle dessert after all that food, and I ended off with a mango ice cream, which was lovely. As to the service, the place was full, and the staff were still fantastic - they were helpful without being intrusive. I can't wait to go back!

I am fortunate to live near this restaurant. It is excellent and the owners provide a really good service. Coming from the UK I like hot food, and so far it is the only place in Ottawa that I have found good, HOT food. The beef Rendang is wonderful, but not for the faint hearted!

My boyfriend and I visited Chahaya Malaysia on Thursday after working out. We brought our appetites and definitely weren't disappointed! As has been noted here already, beware of the heat. We ordered 1 star dishes and wouldn't have enjoyed them if they'd been any hotter.

We started with spring rolls and then ordered three dishes. A chicken dish with coconut milk, ginger and lemongrass (#16 on the menu) for my boyfriend, the Malaysian vegetarian noodles and the soya tofu. My bf said that his dish had great flavours that made him think of a fish dish for some reason. The noodle dish was the better of the two vegetarian dish in my opinion. There were lots of veggies and some tofu in it and the sauce was just the right amount of spicy, sweet and salty. The tofu dish was good as well, but I would have liked it better if there had been some more veggies mixed in. The sauce was a little heavy on the soya sauce in my opinion: too salty. It was enjoyable, though.

When we arrived there were about 6 other tables occupied in the restaurant, but that didn't affect the service (only the owner was serving). He brought us water several times as we needed it, and the food arrived quite quickly. The portions were huge and we ended up bringing half of it home with us. The owner was very friendly and chatted with us for a few minutes during our meal.

We will definitely be going back!

The real deal of Malaysian food! The best in town and the owner is friendly. I go there whenever I am home sick! Try the 'teh tarik' - it is yummy ('pulled' tea made with condensed milk instead of sugar, although I prefer it less sweet).

Went there the other week with friends. Amazing food. AMAZING simply. But be careful with spicy dishes. Some are too hot to handle. When they say hot they mean it.

Girlfriend used to live upstairs in the same building. Undoubtedly one of my favorite restaurants ever. We used to go at least 3 times per month and still go. Always great. Vegetarian and vegan selection...you MUST try the Soya Tofu dish.

This dish is incredible but you will have to build a tolerance for the heat before you try this dish or it will burn you. But it's so good with lots of rice. And have that bean on ice dessert after.

The spicy red sauce must have shrimp paste in it. And maybe tomatoes. It's incredible! But I couldn't finish the sauce since it was so hot so I brought it home and fried up some chicken in it. Just as good and I like chicken better!

These are the shrimp chips they served (at no charge) before our apps and meal. They were soooooo good!! We ate every last one of them...light, airy, and crispy. When we were finished our meal and enjoying the rest of the wine, we simply asked for another basket...and yes, we gobbled all those up as well!

These Malaysian style coffees and teas are sweetened with sweetened condensed milk and served in a glass with a napkin wrapped around it and poured as seen here (she knows I was posting her pic!). She commented that her partner was more daring with the pour as he moves the tray around as well while he pours. Very nice coffee and a perfect end to the meal to go along with the ice dessert.

One of my friends instinctively wanted to put sugar in hers since that's how she usually drinks coffee, but we warned her to taste it first because of the condensed milk and she did and yes, it was sweet enough for her. I'm usually just milk with my coffee kind of gal, NO sugar, but I really enjoyed this one.

I feel bad since I can't remember the name of the ice dessert we had here but, it was almost like a sweet bubblegum flavor poured over ice with chunks of jelly candy in it and nuts (pistachios??). It's quite sweet but went well with our coffee.

The other dessert was the fried plantains which were the best I've had here in Ottawa so far. Nice and moist on the inside and not greasy or too crispily fried! Yum.

I didn't get a picture of these wonderful ditties but they were really yummy....not greasy and nicely deep fried. What I noticed was that they were signigicantly longer than other springrolls I've had elsewhere.